Acupuncture and The MIT Traditional Health Plan

For those who work at MIT, here is a good news for you! The MIT Traditional Health Plan has great acupuncture coverage that you only need to pay $10 copay per visit, and you get to go 20 visits per year!

Routine acupuncture treatments is beneficial for everyone.

“I have no allergy symptom this year!”
“My hands and feet aren’t as cold!”
“Now I can finally sleep through the night!”
“I just realized that I have been going to bathroom everyday for the whole week!”
“I have erection this morning! This hasn’t happened for a long time!”

This list goes on and on. Usually, these patients are here for pain or other issues, but acupuncture is the medicine that treats the whole body, so these is just a small corner of the benefits. This is also how I turn my patients into my regulars who are here just to feel good.

For 20 acupuncture visits, if there is no current or on going issues, the best way for boosting the overall well-being and immune system is to get 3 to 4 treatments when the seasons is changing and using the rest when something happens or for the time of stress. For example, have 4 treatments each in March, June, September and December, and use the 2 for stress from work during tax season and 2 for sore shoulder and back from shoveling snow.

The following is a screen shot from 2015 MIT Traditional Plan Description of Benefits, which you can find the full pdf file via this link. This screen is from page 112 of this file, and it is the page 4 of Schedule of Benefits.

Schedule of Benefits (2015 Network Blue)

Under Non-Covered service in the “Limitations and Exclusions”, it says “A service or supply that is not described as a covered service . Some examples of non- covered services are: acupuncture (unless it is described as a covered service in your Schedule of Benefits and/or riders ); private duty nursing; and reversal of sterilization.” Some of my patients were discouraged by seeing this, but Schedule of Benefits is what matters. I am not sure of the benefits from the other employers, but I encourage everyone to read through the benefits from you health insurance providers. Recent years, more and more wellness programs or services are introduced into the health plan, and since they are your benefits, you should make the most out of them!